Bathyspondylus swindoniensis

Bathyspondylus is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of Swindon, England. Because it is known only from its fossil vertebrae, paleontologists are not entirely sure of the taxonomy of Bathyspondylus; the family it belongs to is not currently known. The type, and only known, species is B. swindoniensis, which was described from the same material as its genus.

Bathyspondylus swindoniensis

Tawa99 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
BathyspondylusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Life habit
aquatic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Plesiosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Plesiosauria

Time the record covers

At most 5.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 154.8 Mya and 149.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Jurassic — about 2 of 2 occurrencesLate Jurassic155–155 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences154–154 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences153–153 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences153–153 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences153–153 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences152–152 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences152–152 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences152–152 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences152–152 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences151–151 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences151–151 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences151–151 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences155.3 Mya148.7 Mya

2 occurrences of Bathyspondylus swindoniensis on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Kimmeridge Clay — 51.55°N, 1.79°WKimmeridge Clay — 51.65°N, 1.29°W

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The named rock units Bathyspondylus swindoniensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Bathyspondylus swindoniensis and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Bathyspondylus swindoniensis and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

5 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Bathyspondylus swindoniensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Bathyspondylus swindoniensis

Credit
Tawa99
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Bathyspondylus swindoniensis was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itBathyspondylus through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Delair 1982